Headlines archive

2017

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices have elected Patience Drake Roggensack to serve a second two-year term as Chief Justice.

"I am honored to have been elected to continue as Chief Justice. It is a privilege to serve the court system as the Chief Justice and to work with Wisconsin Court of Appeals and Circuit Court judges and their staff. I will maintain my open-door policy to all who wish to discuss the administration of Wisconsin courts."

Chief Justice Roggensack is the first justice to be elected to serve as Chief Justice since the 2015 constitutional amendment that permitted Supreme Court Justices to select the Chief Justice. Chief Justice Roggensack was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2003. She was reelected in 2013. Prior to being elected to the Supreme Court, she served on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals from 1996 until 2003.

Chief Justice Roggensack delivered the 2017 Hallows Lecture at the Marquette University Law School in which she offered her research and concerns in Tough Talk and the Institutional Legitimacy of Our Courts. She calls for a wider conversation about the effects of comments that do not criticize the reasoning that underlays judicial opinions, but rather, attack the integrity of state and federal judges.

Chief Justice Roggensack is a frequent guest lecturer at state and national organizations. She is also the author of numerous publications related to constitutional principles and the role of the courts and the judges who staff them in a democratic society.